Contemporary Learning

Lately, I’ve been blogging a lot.  I’m updating Geekapedia daily, as well as managing to write the occasional post for my writing blog, this one and very occasionally at Globalteacher.org.  I like doing this.  Helps me keep focus.  Take stock.  Provoke.  Reflect.  Organise my thinking.  And in the case of Geekapedia, it’s proving to be an invaluable storehouse of resources I call upon regularly.

I thought I’d do something a bit different for this post.  I’m going to step through my blogroll (see the list of blogs on the side of the page) and check in on every one listed.  I won’t comment on every blog but I’ll explore and let you know what I find.

Hopefully by the end of it, I’ll also have found a handful of other blogs to add to my collection.  Here’s a picture of a meerkat to look at while I go traipsing through the blogosphere…

Hi.  I’m back.

That was time well spent.  Now, some observations whilst they’re fresh.

Blogging Platforms

Lots of Wordpress blogs around – either Globalteacher, Edublogs or hosted Wordpress blogs on personalised domains.

Also a lot of Blogspot/Blogger (Google’s blogging platform) about.  I use Blogger for my writing blog but must admit to preferring Wordpress.   Globalteacher is great for DEECD staff/students (except that it does block certain scripts necessary for embedding from some sites).

We Have Moved

Kim Cofino’s Always Learning blog had moved as had Chris Betcher’s and Stephen Heppell’s.  Simon Robinson’s Your Digital Consultant also moved due to dissatisfaction with Edublogs:

Apologies to both of my readers who have been hanging out for posts. I haven’t been super happy with the Edublogs service for a while now. Poor performance, the introduction of advertising and uncompetitive pricing (to remove the advertising) has prompted a rethink.

Fresh

Lots of regular updates – in software development there’s a phrase called ‘going dark’ to describe inactivity but I found the vast majority of bloggers updated their blogs at least once in the past month and in many cases in the past few days.  Only a few had gone dark.  Surprisingly, one of those was Stephen Heppell’s.

Many of my favourite tech blogs Lifehacker and Gizmodo update many times a day.  This is essential for breaking news:

The Government Now Wants ISPs To Link Your Online History With Your Passport

Last week we were duly shocked by the discovery that the government is looking into a proposal to make ISPs retain a log of every website you ever visit. Now it’s coming out that they may want ISPs to link that information to other personal data like your passport number.

This really highlights the contemporary nature of the medium which is, of course, one of its greatest strengths.

Personalised Domains

One interesting trend I noticed is that lots of educators are getting their own domains.  (Can’t say I blame them – I’ve had my own for a few years now).

BTW: If you’re interested in doing this, I can recommend godaddy.com – it’s cheap, established and – despite a fairly cluttered interface – quite easy to use.

Talk To Me

Lots of comments on the more established blogs.  Again, a good thing, one that could be summed up in two pivotal points:

1. Blog posts are often the start of the thinking and conversation, not the culmination of it.
2. Blogs provide direct access to educational leaders/ thinkers

Of course, commenting is a double-edged sword depending on who you attract.  In the vast majority of blogs the ensuing discussions were positive, healthy and/or stimulating, but there are – remarkably – still some blogging platforms that do not offer moderation controls over comments, and invariably this leads to problems.

Accessing Resources

A trawl through a blogroll will always net a bounty of resources and today was no different.

On John Larkin’s blog I found a link to posterous.  Although this was released last year, it had escaped my attention but after 15 minutes of dabbling, I was so enamoured by it, I wrote up a review on geekapedia.

I also have a thing for 3D modelling software (Blender, Vue, Maya etc.) so I was delighted to find a post about Sculptris on  Rhondda’s blog.

Sculptris: 3D modeling software

Tonight I have had some fun playing with a new tool. I will not be putting in my creation just yet as I need to do some work on them. At the moment they look more like something out of an alien movie.

The program I downloaded was called Sculptris. It is free 3D modeling software for Windows (there is no Mac option)…

Above: Steampunk Lion created in Blender

Not all resources on blogs are of the killer app variety.  Sometimes it’s good to keep abreast of what other people are reading:

For example, Greg Whitby on his Bluyonder blog comments on Ben Jensen’s article What teachers Want: Better teacher management.

It cites OECD figures in which 63% of Australian teachers believe evaluation of their work is undertaken for no other reason than to fufil administrative requirements and has little impact on their day to day practice.

It’s also good to read outside of the educational blogosphere…

QUESTION THE RULES by Chris Brogan

Maybe you had purple hair in school. Maybe you still do?  Maybe you just don’t like the way “the man” gets all the loot and you’re still shaking your empty fist at society.

Blogs can be an incredibly efficient way of staying in touch with what is going on out in the wider world and/or getting a broader range of viewpoints than can be found in our immediate environment.

Taking Stock

Even the best practitioners take time out to assess what they’re doing.  In fact, this is probably why they make such good teachers.

Time to take stock – Semester 1

Right in the middle of report writing I felt the need to take some time to reflect on my first semester at my new school. Everything is so new that despite years of teaching experience, I feel like a first year graduate in many ways. However a few minutes spent looking at some photos of my students working in the art room made me feel very happy and confident that it has been a very good semester.

However, there was a small number of blogs that were comprised of lots of links and these held less interest to me than the reflections and stories I found.  I guess a link on its own contains no context, so I prefer posts containing person’s views on the technology and/or their practice.

For example, take a look at this post from Will Richardson, an educator whose blog I have been reading on and off for many years.

Nine Years of Blogging

Nine years ago today I wrote my first blog post. I just want to thank all of you who have joined me on this journey for reading, commenting, pushing my thinking, sharing your thoughts, and keeping me motivated to continue writing here. I may not be blogging as much as I did in my heyday four or five years ago, before Twitter and a half a dozen other new tools started eating into my blogging time, but I still love this space and the things that happen here. I feel very, very humbled by how much you all have taught me in the process.

Or this post on Personalized Assessment by Dean Shareski

One of the current buzz words in the world of educational technology is “personalized learning” I’ve used it often and while it’s been used prior to the influx of technology in schools, the internet is making it more of a reality and possibility than ever before. If indeed we believe in the value of a personalized learning experience then I think we also need to consider what personalized assessment and evaluation might look like as well.

I also enjoy the cross-pollination of blogs, where the points of others are discussed, debated, defended or debunked.  Blogs can be a treasure trove of thinking.  For example, I found this post wherein Darren Draper is reiterating quite a profound point Larry Cuban made on his blog about the complex nature of change and how adaptation is key to success.

At the minimum, know that working in a complex system means adapting to changes, dealing with conflicts, and constant learning. These are natural, not aberrations. Know further that reform designs borrowed from complicated systems and imposed from the top in complex systems will hardly make a dent in the daily work of those whose job is convert policy into action.

Celebrating the Work of Others

As I perambulated down the blogroll, I was struck by how many teachers are doing pretty amazing things in their classroom, and these educators tend to make the kids and the industry of the classroom the foci of their blogposts.

Have a look at this blogpost from the Library Resource Centre at St Martin of Tours Primary School:

This term the Year Five Classes have been working as a level in Student Action Teams.  Ellie, Joshua, Calista, Alexander, Jacob and Shlok have worked as a team to research mobile phones.  In the slideshow below you can read some of their findings about how many people own mobile phones; mobile phone usage and the health and environmental effects of mobile phones.

Similarly the blog Little Voices, Little Scholars highlights how schools can celebrate good learning via a blog.

As part of the Literacy learning process, the children write stories and then draw pictures to illustrate their stories. Our story writing is integrated with our Topic Studies. We also record our stories in movies so that we can share them with you. We hope you’ll like our work.

Ditto the superlative blog run by English Department at St Columba’s College, Whitechurch, Dublin.  With podcasts, reviews, Twitter feeds, links to published work, on Lulu.com, this blog is a powerful testament to the medium, especially when passionate teachers and students contribute to it.

No YouTube for You!

The block on YouTube in my workplace is seriously impacting upon my ability to effectively digest blogs.  I can read the text but for a visually-minded person like me the video often houses the meaning.

Summing Up

I need to give myself more time to explore blogs.  On one hand, this is something that’s hard to justify – in the business of the working day (especially these days) it’s hard not to feel guilty spending time reading a blog.  I tend to do it at lunchtimes or after work (and I imagine most teachers are the same) but really, this sort of professional learning should be seen as core to any educator’s work.

From an hour spent scanning my blogroll I discovered an incredible number of tools and ideas, as well as being energised by all the activity going on out there.  My state of guilt has moved from feeling guilty for reading the blogs to feeling guilty about the fact I should be doing more with technology.

There are worse ways to spend an hour.